Beijing June 26 -- Some 10,000 people marched
through Beijing's streets Sunday to support China's anti-drug day, as the nation
burned illegal caches of heroin, hash and other drugs seized by police, an
official and state media said.

Chinese volunteers brave the rain to march against drugs in honor of anti
drug day in Beijing, China Sunday, June 26, 2005. Government said 10,000 people
took part in the march in the city's northwest. [AP]

China Central Television showed police in several cities setting fire to
large urns filled with drugs, including a cache of 10 million yuan (US$1.2
million) worth of narcotics in the southern city of Nanchang.

Marchers in Beijing wore matching white visors and pastel-colored raincoats
and chanted slogans as they marched about 20 kilometers (12 miles) through a
morning downpour from the Summer Palace in the city's northwest into the center
of Beijing.

About 10,000 were estimated to have taken part, said a female official with
the Information Office of the Beijing Anti-Narcotics Office reached by phone who
would only give her surname, Zhong.

Anti-drug day is part of a renewed official crackdown on the illegal drug
trade.

There were some 791,000 known drug addicts in China at the end of last
year, according to the Chinese government.